Double scratch build -2x 1/32 SAAB MFI-9B Junior

[Derek Bradshaw]

To keep my motivation going, I have decided to dabble in a little scratch building in between a demanding model project. As my modelling passion is themed on Greek and Swedish aircraft, I needed something small and (relatively) simple to scratch build. Also, as I have only limited availability to my modelling materials and tools at present, I need to use what is at hand - so I am going to turn a pile of scrap vacform kit backing plastic into two 1/32 scale MFI-9B aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Derek Bradshaw]

And so the tinkering with scrap plastic continues...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Derek Bradshaw]

Slowly slowly...

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Derek Bradshaw]

A little (slow) progress. I had to make some plunge mould tools to replicate the (handed) cockpit elbow room 'blisters'. However, my wood is packed away, so what could I use as a substitute? The answer was to use a piece from an old demolished plant trestle frame, which is made of a fibrous imitation plastic wood material (needs must!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Derek Bradshaw]

Some more progress. The plunge moulding didn't work out - the plastic sheet I have is too thick and would not form properly and I have no more suitable thin sheet, so another approach was required.

After giving it some thought, I elected to make use of the plunge mould too I had made (which is double ended for the handed cockpit blisters, but I ho repair one end due to heat damage - it melted), so I decided to use it as a male pattern to form putty over.

After I applied a coat of vaseline over the mould shapes, I applied a layer of Milliput epoxy resin putty. Once they were cured, they were prised off and externally shaped, filed and sanded to the correct shape (sort of 1/32 Easter egg shells!). The maximum thickness of these blisters are approximately 0.4 to 0.2mm, so is not for the faint-hearted...those of a nervous disposition should look away now! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Derek Bradshaw]

I have some questions for my knowledgeable friends here? As you may be aware, I am making two SAAB MFI-9B Junior aircraft, one as used by the Flygvapnet for a short time for trial as a training aircraft, and the other will be a 'Biafra Baby' aircraft as used by Count Carl von Rosen - it is this latter aircraft that I require some help with.

 

a) Did the Biafran MFI-9B aircraft have the luggage compartment (hollow area behind the two seats) installed on these aircraft during operational use, or were they removed?

 

b) It is known that a bespoke fuel tank was made and installed on the Biafran MFI-9B aircraft, probably replacing the left seat - Are there any images or other details for this tank installation?

 

c) Does anyone know if this bespoke additional fuel tank was actually used during normal operations, or was purely used for ferry purposes?

 

d) When the aircraft were camouflaged, it can be seen that it appears that the internal canopy frames were left in their original colours. Is there confirmation that the top deck of the fuselage underneath the clear aft canopy (aft of the seats, and around the filler cap area) also left in original colour or was it camouflaged? (I would expect it to be camouflaged, but want to be certain).

 

At this point in my build, question a) is the most important to answer, as I have to plan ahead and I would have a fair amount of rear fuselage internal detail work to complete before I can assemble one of the fuselages if the luggage compartment was removed.

 

Many thanks

 

Derek

Edited July 28, 2020 by Derek Bradshaw
Text edit

[Parrahs]

When the Swedish Air Force were done with their tests the ten test aircraft were returned to Malmö Flygindustri (IIRC this is just around when SAAB bought the company). These were then put up for sale, three were part of the first five that went to Biafra, and another two were part of the second four-aircraft batch. Haglund's book (Gerillapilot i Biafra) makes no mention of any differences between the aircraft beyond the paintjobs applied. In the photos a wall can be seen just at the rear end up the cockpit, but they don't show enough to tell if this wall runs all the way down to the floor. Said wall comes in black and a brownish red, perhaps a difference between Air Force rental and standard production? Either way I can't recall any cargo compartment ever being mentioned.

 

As for the fuel tank I seem tor recall that it held 80 litres. It doesn't show up in any photo I've seen, so it probably stayed a decent bit below shoulder-height for the pilot. I don't recall it being mentioned when exactly they were used, but Haglund did mention that it was a very long flight for the first attack and that the aircraft was very heavy on takeoff. None of the photos appear to show the top fuselage part under the canopy well enough to say what colour it is (except, irritatingly enough, one photo of them before the camouflage was applied). The pilot always appears to be sitting on the left side of the aircraft. Given how worried they were about being spotted form the air full camouflage seems like the best guess to me.

[Derek Bradshaw]

12 minutes ago, Parrahs said:

When the Swedish Air Force were done with their tests the ten test aircraft were returned to Malmö Flygindustri (IIRC this is just around when SAAB bought the company). These were then put up for sale, three were part of the first five that went to Biafra, and another two were part of the second four-aircraft batch. Haglund's book (Gerillapilot i Biafra) makes no mention of any differences between the aircraft beyond the paintjobs applied. In the photos a wall can be seen just at the rear end up the cockpit, but they don't show enough to tell if this wall runs all the way down to the floor. Said wall comes in black and a brownish red, perhaps a difference between Air Force rental and standard production? Either way I can't recall any cargo compartment ever being mentioned.

 

As for the fuel tank I seem tor recall that it held 80 litres. It doesn't show up in any photo I've seen, so it probably stayed a decent bit below shoulder-height for the pilot. I don't recall it being mentioned when exactly they were used, but Haglund did mention that it was a very long flight for the first attack and that the aircraft was very heavy on takeoff. None of the photos appear to show the top fuselage part under the canopy well enough to say what colour it is (except, irritatingly enough, one photo of them before the camouflage was applied). The pilot always appears to be sitting on the left side of the aircraft. Given how worried they were about being spotted form the air full camouflage seems like the best guess to me.

Excellent information, thank you Parrahs

 

Derek

[RichieW]

What a brilliant start, lots of tips for me to crib here. Love your molded 'blisters', some serious modelling going on here! 

[Derek Bradshaw]

16 hours ago, Parrahs said:

As for the fuel tank I seem tor recall that it held 80 litres. It doesn't show up in any photo I've seen, so it probably stayed a decent bit below shoulder-height for the pilot. I don't recall it being mentioned when exactly they were used, but Haglund did mention that it was a very long flight for the first attack and that the aircraft was very heavy on takeoff. 

Hi Parrahs,

I see that we share the same passion for this aircraft (I really like your 1/72 MFi-9B build, well done).

 

It would be interesting to understand what 80 litres looks like in terms of (cubic) volume size, then I would have some basic dimensions to work with! (once I know this, I can then play around with the shape and size I require). There seems to be variations between all of the on-line Mfi-9B specifications for the normal fuel capacity, which appear to vary from 80 liters to 120 liters! (if it is 80 liters, then I wonder if a standard MFi-9 tank was adapted and modified?).

 

I have given it some thought and on balance (putting my aviation engineering hat on for a moment), I think that I will make my BB (Biafra Baby) MFi-9B variant without the internal luggage compartment behind the seats and add the fuel tank. The rationale for this (and this is simply an educated guess) is that these aircraft were prepared for an offensive role, so as such, would have any unnecessary 'niceties' removed before use. 

 

This seems to make sense when you consider certain factors...additional fuel tankage (this would have to be plumbed into the existing fuel system somewhere), addition of a rudimentary aiming system and most importantly, configuring the aircraft to accept underwing hardpoints and weapons - this would require access to the rear fuselage in order to install wiring and any other release mechanisms.

 

I have not decided which scheme to use for this aircraft as yet, but no two were the same and defined pattern schemes are difficult to obtain information on (it would be good of the aircraft could be identified in both their pre and post-camouflage schemes).

 

Derek

[Parrahs]

2 hours ago, Derek B said:

It would be interesting to understand what 80 litres looks like in terms of (cubic) volume size

Assuming I'm not misunderstanding the question... 80 litres is the same as 80 cubic decimetres. (If you prefer imperial units then my calculator says 4882 cubic inches.) Having no info on this fuel tank beyond what I wrote above I simply assumed a cuboid shape for my build, made it about as wide as I could and then played around with the length and height to make something that looked ok, would stay out of sight in the photos I had, and end up with the right volume in total. The end result for me was about 5mm wide, 7mm long and 6.1mm high, or 3.6x5x4.4 dm in scale.

The aluminium paint I slapped onto the fuel tank was based on the thought that if something was made on-sire it would likely be made form metal rather than plastic. In the end though that's obviously pure guesswork, and as you say it might be that they pulled a ready-made fuel tank out of something else.

[Michou]

According to "Shadows, Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria", Michael Draper,Hikoki Publications 1999 -
On arriving in Gabon the Minicons were fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank in the cockpit's right-hand seat, Matra rocket pods, and received an overall glossy two-tone green camouflage using locally purchased Valspar paints.

Mike

[Derek Bradshaw]

22 hours ago, Michou said:

According to "Shadows, Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria", Michael Draper,Hikoki Publications 1999 -
On arriving in Gabon the Minicons were fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank in the cockpit's right-hand seat, Matra rocket pods, and received an overall glossy two-tone green camouflage using locally purchased Valspar paints.

Mike

Thanks Mike.

 

There seems to be some disagreement about exactly what size rockets were installed, depending upon which article you read, so this is something else I need to confirm (as well as find some accurate drawings for them).

 

Cheers

 

Derek

Edited July 31, 2020 by Derek Bradshaw

[Michou]

Hi Derek,

From the same book -

...two underwing French-made rocket pods, each pod capable of carrying six 68mm Matra rockets.

Mike

[Derek Bradshaw]

17 hours ago, Michou said:

Hi Derek,

From the same book -

...two underwing French-made rocket pods, each pod capable of carrying six 68mm Matra rockets.

Mike

Thanks again Mike.

 

Derek

Edited July 31, 2020 by Derek Bradshaw

[Derek Bradshaw]

6 hours ago, Parrahs said:

Assuming I'm not misunderstanding the question... 80 litres is the same as 80 cubic decimetres. (If you prefer imperial units then my calculator says 4882 cubic inches.) Having no info on this fuel tank beyond what I wrote above I simply assumed a cuboid shape for my build, made it about as wide as I could and then played around with the length and height to make something that looked ok, would stay out of sight in the photos I had, and end up with the right volume in total. The end result for me was about 5mm wide, 7mm long and 6.1mm high, or 3.6x5x4.4 dm in scale.

The aluminium paint I slapped onto the fuel tank was based on the thought that if something was made on-sire it would likely be made form metal rather than plastic. In the end though that's obviously pure guesswork, and as you say it might be that they pulled a ready-made fuel tank out of something else.

Thanks Parrahs, I shall probably follow your lead once I have studied the fuel system a little to understand if it was filled separately (by gravity) or was was plumbed in and had its own filler?

 

Cheers

 

Derek

[Parrahs]

Haglund's book confirms the use of 6x68mm MATRA pods.

[Jonners]

Nice work, Derek - good to see the various ideas, materials and techniques that you are using. 

Jon

[Michou]

The only MATRA rocket pod which carried just six 68mm rockets which I have been able to find is the model LR F2.  This seems to be the same as the pod on the Finnish Fouga Magisters.  There is a very good photo in the Wikipedia -

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fouga_CM_170_Magister_(FM-45)_Keski-Suomen_ilmailumuseo_Matra_rocket_pod.JPG
Dimensions of the pod are: length - 1450mm, diameter - 246mm

Mike

[Sabrejet]

This looks awesome. Great scratch-building skills.

[Derek Bradshaw]

2 hours ago, Michou said:

The only MATRA rocket pod which carried just six 68mm rockets which I have been able to find is the model LR F2.  This seems to be the same as the pod on the Finnish Fouga Magisters.  There is a very good photo in the Wikipedia -

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fouga_CM_170_Magister_(FM-45)_Keski-Suomen_ilmailumuseo_Matra_rocket_pod.JPG
Dimensions of the pod are: length - 1450mm, diameter - 246mm

Mike

 

Excellent - good stuff Mike; this helps me a lot, thank you

 

Derek

[Anders N]

Hello

First congrats to your excellent build, very interesting.

You probably already have the needed answers, so this may be unnecessary info but I have the SFF book about the MFI story in Malmö and it says:

After purchase of the planes by Aircraft LeaseCO they were moddified at Bulltofta with a 85 liter extratank in the right seat with an map-table on top of it, an extra 12 v batteri to get 24 v for the pods and fastening point for the aim. 25 of the aims were bought from John Karlssons company Viking and these aiming devices had previously been used by the Flygvapnet in the FFVS J22.

 

On 28 th of April the first SE-EWE was flown by Dahlen to the base Bretigny and MATRA did mount the Pods and wiring, usuable for each 7 SNEB rockets. Thought 7 looks odd as I can only see 6 pipes on the pictures.

 

If you want. I could scan the relevant parts and send them to you, sadly just in Swedish

 

Hope this helps a bit//Anders

[Derek Bradshaw]

13 hours ago, Anders N said:

Hello

First congrats to your excellent build, very interesting.

You probably already have the needed answers, so this may be unnecessary info but I have the SFF book about the MFI story in Malmö and it says:

After purchase of the planes by Aircraft LeaseCO they were moddified at Bulltofta with a 85 liter extratank in the right seat with an map-table on top of it, an extra 12 v batteri to get 24 v for the pods and fastening point for the aim. 25 of the aims were bought from John Karlssons company Viking and these aiming devices had previously been used by the Flygvapnet in the FFVS J22.

 

On 28 th of April the first SE-EWE was flown by Dahlen to the base Bretigny and MATRA did mount the Pods and wiring, usuable for each 7 SNEB rockets. Thought 7 looks odd as I can only see 6 pipes on the pictures.

 

If you want. I could scan the relevant parts and send them to you, sadly just in Swedish

 

Hope this helps a bit//Anders

Hello Anders,

 

Thank you very much for that information - every piece helps me piece together the technical information I need to make the aircraft as representative as possible, so yes, I would appreciate it. I wonder where they stored the additional battery?

 

The map table on top of the right seat auxiliary fuel tank is certainly something I did not know. This leads me to the conclusion that it was most likely linked to the main fuel tank and system, as there would be little room for a separate filler cap and a map board! (I have done some very basic volume calculations and now have a rough idea of the probable shape and size for such a tank).

 

I agree, I also have only seen six MATRA rockets installed in each pod (perhaps a seventh could be installed in the centre, but I do not know?).

 

Best regards and thanks

 

Derek

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

That’s incredibly fine work with the milli-putt blisters. I never would have thought of that method but it seems to have worked really well. I might have to copy that one day.

[Derek Bradshaw]

14 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

That’s incredibly fine work with the milli-putt blisters. I never would have thought of that method but it seems to have worked really well. I might have to copy that one day.

Well Steve, with a house move imminent, and most of my modelling stuff in boxes, needs must! (thank you).

 

Derek